The Work of a Mental Health Counselor - Assignment Example

? Mental Health Counseling Job Work Environment, and Wages According to Latinos, a mental health counselor,the work of a mental health counselor (MHC) has definition as doing work with people, households, and teams to deal with and cure psychological and emotional disorders which include nervousness, suicidal desires, sadness, substance misuse, stress, ordeal, low self-respect and sorrow. Moreover, this kind of counselor can offer counsel on works and careers, and start taking part in society schemes (“Mental Health Counselors”). MHCs should have good listening capacity and vital reasoning to detect their customer’s challenges, express themselves precisely, and remain responsive to their customer’s hardships. They have the ability to maintain calmness and control when evaluating conflicts including having the freedom to d job over a broad variety of atmospheres, like personal office, a big-team converging point, or even their individual households. Further to these skills, MHCs should portray own control, stress management, honesty, and responsiveness towards customers. These features will enable the MHC look professional, and create an association of trust amongst themselves and their customers (Erford, 2010). Furthermore, like a MHC, it remains imperative for one to handle their personal challenges efficiently. A few individuals are very skilled at lending hand to others to get over their hardships, however, when it is their personal lives, they remain a muddle. If a person’s challenges remaining weighing one backwards, and taking too much of an individual’s time, one will not have the capacity to exhibit genuine concern for the rest or aid them. When MHCs get to know themselves and deal with own challenges coolly and victoriously, they can very efficiently aid the rest to reform behavior of handle challenges, as explained by Lintos, the mental Health Counselor. Nevertheless, do not understand me off beam; one does not need to perfect on the part of this job. If one has handled precisely a baggage in one’s history, one may associate to your customers and offer them individual examples like motivation (Ponton, 2009). If this kind of job sounds as it will suit one’s personality, then one has even further good information for an individual. The estimated development of this career is very great, at least 20%, and since 2008 to 2018, 50,100 further MHCs will remain required, depending to O*NET Online, a database which has contextual data on a broad variety of occupations (“Mental Health Counselors”). Lintos explained that the Bureau of Labor Statistics evaluated that in 2008; estimatingly 113,300 mental health counselors remained performing. And their average salary remained $36,810 per calendar, according to the items in which they remained applied, with those doing job in the local state earning the majority (United States). The work prospects in this area remain very promising, mainly for students’ merely starting their degrees or those previously in graduate institution. If this behavior goes on and one does job to the best of their capacity in learning institution and one’s internships, one may remain almost certain of getting a career like a Mental Health Counselor (Erford, 2010). Who Are Your Clients? When one has remained employed or commenced a personal counseling exercise, one will commence getting customers. Every customer remains different in individual ways, and will come to the counselor with their personal set of challenges. According to the kind of item one does work in, if society or private, one can remain counseling individual customers, households, or a big team of individuals. These individuals would remain handling “household parenting, and marriage challenges; stress control. Suicide; challenges with own esteem; and matters related to aging and psychological and emotional welfare” (“Mental Health Counselors”). Moreover, one may do job with stuff abusers, home violence upsets, or addicts looking to halt their destructive trends. According to B William, another Mental Health Counselor stated that a few clients are ready to agree their challenge and actively look to bear with it or win it. Nevertheless, several clients can come to counseling simply due to being compelled to do so, or understand they must, and they can be not ready to reform their behaviors. In this scenario, the initial matter a counselor should identify is this unfaithfulness. They should adopt “to remain blunt and to face the addicts with their lack of maturity”. For example, counselors should deal with the addict’s challenges straight and propose practical means for the client to reform (Cummins, 2007). Education Requirements and Licensing At this moment, one can remain happy and uttering to oneself, “Ok, this occupation sounds fantastic! Am willing to commence counseling now!” Nevertheless, like the total worthwhile items, an occupation in mental health counseling needs tough job and several years of learning institution. William said that the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics stipulates the schooling needs for mental health counseling, which comprise getting at least a master’s degree in counseling, taking about 48-60 hours of learning and a specific amount of “manned clinical practice”. Licensure remains mainly needed, according to a counselor’s sphere and the nature they opt to exercise on. This procedure may demand at least 3,000 hours or two years of manned practice (following getting a master’s degree), going to progressing-learning rooms every year, considering the profession’s norms, and excelling the government test. Nevertheless, a few governments permit counselors to attend the exam from the National Board for Certified Counselors, not the government exam (Stebnicki, 2007). A few easy steps to take currently could remain to speak to one’s guidance counselor and commence searching for colleges that one desires which provide undergraduate degrees in counseling, mental, or social activity (these in total give a precise foundation for a master’s degree like a MHC). If one’s learning institution provides introductory sessions in sociology, mental, or anthropology, fix them into one’s programme to provide oneself a taste of this area of learning. Maybe, one can take a day shadowing an individual who does job like a counselor or in an associated profession, or look for an internship with an enterprise or non-profit institution. If one remains keenly pondering becoming a MHC, maintain ones eyes open for and actively look for chances for one to study more and gather experience (Eaves, 2010). Current Issues As any profession, Mental Health Counseling contains its individual share of conflicts and matters. The springing up of latest counseling theories for the past years has led to controversies, and they remain progressively having evaluations from experts in this area. The theories to have review are two and which are: problem-focused counseling and solution focused counseling. Furthermore, the development of multiculturalism in our community has formed a requirement for counselors to well know what varying cultures worth and believe. To know the place this profession remains now at, it is significant for us to shortly study these two theories. Because of the postmodern globe that we stay in, and which offers a big deal of concentration on personal value and gains, the two theories remain of late at odds. The two techniques of curing individuals striving with substance misuse or addiction: solution focused counseling and problem-focused counseling (PFC). PFC, as William utters, has the notion that substance misuse is a challenge that customers will handle with their complete life and that they lack the capacity to conquer. It is simply when they accept their denial of their challenge that they may perform towards total avoidance. This remains mainly termed as “disease model”, because addiction remains viewed like a disorder which has no cure and that customers may not at all completely recover from. The moment a customer attains abstinence, they should struggle to cover their challenge every day. This problem-focused counseling looks to get a customer’s inadequacies and solve their challenges (Colangelo, 2009). Assuming that PFC inputs too much stress on an individual’s challenge and their strive to overcome it, William claims that for solution-focused counseling (SFC). This technique branching from a postmodernist globe view due to its concentration on personality and relativity of curing, stresses a customers individual interpretation of their challenge and their capacity to evaluate it. Not similar to the disorder model, solution-focused counselors utter “that having knowledge of the challenge lacks necessity in order to reform it and that the challenge and its answer can not even have association”. Studies have confirmed that this kind of counseling has remained efficient for home violence offenders, same as customers who are not ready to receive cure. Whereas the technique of cure in PFC remains the acceptance of denial, MHCs who apply the SFC technique apply three kinds of questions to cure their customers. The queries aid the customer to determine their coping skills, their visions the moment counseling gets completed, and the way they may commence behaving lately to overcome their challenge (Linde, 2010). A few examples of queries that a counselor may question their customers in the process of a counseling session include; “How could you behave if you had no this challenge?” “How confident are you that you may conquer this challenge?”, or “During the moments when your challenge does not happen, how are you acting varyingly?” SFC concentrates on the good aspects of a customer’s life and their power and wish to conquer their substance misuse or addiction challenge. A few benefits of SFC include flexibility, concentration on the encouragement of the customer, and stress on a customer’s willingness to reform; however, there exists some challenges in the method which are; as critics say that the method seems extremely easy, and thus inefficient. Whereas, it appears to remain victorious, William admits that SFC does require progressive study to assure its efficiency. He states that SFC technique can not function for each client; however, it may remain tailored for nearly anybody (Counseling Resource, 2011). Multiculturalism is the other matter conflicting counseling of late. The way varied views of the globe cause hardship in counseling, so the same as cultural heritages. Due to immigration, the United States has turned to a more varied and teams that previously comprised of a minute segment of our demography remain developing. Counselors currently do job with individuals who not merely contain a broad variety of challenges, however, those who emerge from big varying cultural origins. Moreover, there remains agreement among researchers that individuals form notions and beliefs concerning diseases and illness from varying situations of practices like religion, household relations, spirituality, languages, social responsibilities, and norms. Two of the biggest small teams in the U.S are African Americans and Hispanics. The two teams come from a differentiated culture, and thus a mental health counselor should know their origins, what they consider important, and what they think concerning sickness (Linde, 2010). Practical Advice The lessons learned from the interview include knowing that whereas wages in the counseling area remain by no way big, one should remain assertive in requesting for a salary that one imagines their professionalism entitles them to. The moment one has permission to operate like an MHC, it is important to look for customer referrals from several sources to assure a firm influx of customers for the coming few years and at times it is important to merge with psychiatrists for the purpose of healthy practice. Human service employees should grip fast to ethical and lawful practices when dealing with their customers. It is in addition important for one to make the majority of their time in learning institution to gather experience, and look for internships or various chances so that the moment one graduates with their master’s degree, they may remain sure that they have done job to the fullest to get ready for the task ahead. This quickly developing profession, despite needing a big deal of studies and practice, is not at all boring; since latest theories and conflicts remain continuously growing, looking to precisely fulfill the requirements of customers. If one possess powerful religious convictions that one needs to integrate into the counseling techniques, one has a big deal of liberty to act as such due to the broad variety of items in which one may do job like a counselor. If one remains passionate concerning their job, no one of the difficulties would be sufficient to demoralize anyone (Ponton, 2009). References Colangelo, J. J. (2009). The American Mental Health Counselors Association: Reflection on 30 historic years. Journal of Counseling & Development, 87(2), 234–240. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases. Counselling Resource. (2011). History of counselling and psychotherapy. Retrieved from http://counsellingresource.com/lib/therapy/types/history/ Cummins, P. N., Massey, L., & Jones, A. (2007). Keeping ourselves well: Strategies for promoting and maintaining counselor wellness. Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education and Development, 46(1), 35–49. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases. Eaves, S. H., Erford, B. T., & Fallon, M. K. (2010). Becoming a professional counselor: Philosophical, historical, and future considerations. In B. T. Erford (Ed.), Orientation to the counseling profession: Advocacy, ethics, and essential professional foundations (pp. 3–23). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Erford, B. T. (Ed.). (2010). Orientation to the counseling profession: Advocacy, ethics, and essential professional foundations. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education. Linde, L. E., Erford, B. T., & Cheung, A. (2010). Ethical and legal issues in counseling. In B. T. Erford (Ed.), Orientation to the counseling profession: Advocacy, ethics, and essential professional foundations (pp. 55–92). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Ponton, R. F., & Duba, J. D. (2009). The ACA Code of Ethics: Articulating counseling’s professional covenant. Journal of Counseling & Development, 87(1), 117–121. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases. Stebnicki, M. A. (2007). Empathy fatigue: Healing the mind, body, and spirit of professional counselors. American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation, 10(4), 317–338. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases. Read More